The Dendermonde Codex

Hildegard von Bingen: a visionary perspective on word, image and music.
Singing and music awaken the soul to ecstasy and they carry out what the word announces aloud.

In the 12th century lived a proud and mysterious woman who, through her frustration at being unable to express her deepest experiences sufficiently, developed a daring perspective on language and music. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a woman of the Middle Ages and of noble birth who was put into a Benedictine convent by her parents when she was eight years old. She became abbess at the age of thirty-eight and founded two more convents; she wrote on theological and scientific matters including medecine, physics and biology; she gave counsel on diplomatic and political affairs; she was a self-taught composer and, above all else, a woman of great intelligence who also possessed exceptional visionary gifts. Hildegard termed herself indocta but was actually docta: a learned and intellectual woman whose genius put that of many intelligent contemporaries in the shadow.

Hildegard von Bingen left 77 liturgical works, including antiphons, responsoria, sequences and hymns; these are collected together in a volume entitled Symphonia Harmoniae Caelestium Revelationum. The MS. COD. 9 that is preserved in the Abbey of Dendermonde contains 58 of these symphoniae. Compared with the Gregorian works, this music is more expansive with the traditional modes evolving gradually towards the tonal system with its tonic-dominant relations; the modes also alternate more rapidly and ‘modulations’ are created in response to the text. In comparison with Gregorian chant, the vocal range is enormously broad and spans from 1½ to sometimes more than 2½ octaves, exploring high and low registers that had previously never before been used. Their performance requires a good vocal technique; through their plentiful use of melisma they often seem to be one immense jubilus. Very progressive indeed is the subtle sensitivity for the meaning of words which results in a sparingly but very alert use of nearly baroque tone symbolism.

Dous Mal
Katelijne Van Laethem voice
Bart Coen recorders
Liam Fennely fiddle and lirone